1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate, in general, to network security. More specifically, the embodiments of the invention relate to a method and a system for identifying and processing a secure flow of data in a network.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a typical network, sensitive information is exchanged between various network devices. Sensitive information is privileged and confidential information such as information related to user identification, business details, design sketches, and so forth. This sensitive information has to be protected from hacking, intrusion, and attempts to disrupt, harm, or disable computer systems in the network. Various techniques are used to prevent hacking and other intrusions. These techniques may be categorized as risk-avoidance systems or risk management systems.
Risk-avoidance systems mitigate the risk of hacking, intrusion and so forth, by introducing a barrier to unauthorized entry of any kind into a network. Conventionally, risk-avoidance systems include, but are not limited to, network firewalls and data encryption. Firewalls are software or hardware devices that filter users allowing access only to the authorized users in the network. Commercial examples of firewalls available in the market include, Firewall-1™, Guardian™, BorderWare™, among others. However, network firewalls restrict access to a limited number of users in the network. Data encryption involves changing information into an unreadable form by mixing bits of data with a password key. This makes the data unreadable unless decrypted by an intruder. Although data encryption is an effective security mechanism, the encryption algorithms require high processing capacity and can be broken through over a period of time.
Risk management systems can detect any malicious activity in the network. Conventionally, risk management systems are software systems that involve network intrusion-detecting applications. These intrusion-detecting applications raise an alarm and provide system administrators details about the network intrusions. Commercial examples of risk management systems available in the market include ISS RealSecure™, NetRanger™ and others. However, the network intrusion-detecting applications sometimes generate false alarms, and at other times fail to prevent intrusions.
There exist other techniques that provide physical security by implementing port-based access control mechanism in those networks where sensitive information is exchanged through secure channels. Ports are access points that connect network devices to the network. Conventional systems that provide physical security involve software features such as port security, identification and processing of the flow of data across the secure channel. However, software-based port-security features sometimes allow non-secure flows to be forwarded on to the secure ports. Moreover, secure traffic leaks out to non-secure ports at times. As a result, frame-level security may not be attainable by using only software-based intrusion identification and processing.